Barbara Blomberg — Complete eBook

Barbara had anticipated Wolf, but while going home
she met him on his way to the Dubois house. He
joined her, and still had many questions to answer.

During the next few days her friend helped her compose
a letter to her son; but he was constantly obliged
to impose moderation upon the passionate vehemence
of her feelings. She often yielded to his superior
prudence, only she would not fulfil his desire to address
her boy as “your Excellency.”

When she read the letter, she thought she had found
the right course.

Barbara first introduced herself to John as his real
mother. She had loved and honoured his great
father with all the strength of her soul, and she
might boast of having been clear to him also.
By the Emperor Charles’s command he, her beloved
child, had been taken from her. She had submitted
with a bleeding heart and, to place him in the path
of fortune, had inflicted the deepest wounds upon
her own soul. Now her self-sacrifice was richly
rewarded, and it would make her happier than himself
if she should learn that his own merit had led him
to the height of fame which she prayed that he might
reach.

Then she congratulated him, and begged him not to
forget her entirely amid his grandeur. She was
only a plain woman, but she, too, belonged to an ancient
knightly race, and therefore he need not be ashamed
of his mother’s blood.

Lastly, at Wolf’s desire, she requested her
son to thank the lady who so lovingly filled her place
to him.

Her friend was to give this letter himself to Don
John of Austria, and he voluntarily promised to lead
the high-minded boy to the belief that his own mother
had also been worthy of an Emperor’s love.

Lastly, Wolf promised to inform her of any important
event in her son’s life or his own. During
the last hour of their meeting he admitted that he
was one of the few who felt satisfied with their lot.
True, he could not say that he had no wishes; but
up to this hour he had desired nothing more constantly
and longingly than to hear her sing once more, as in
that never-to-be-forgotten May in the Ratisbon home.
He might now hope, sooner or later, to have this wish,
too, fulfilled. These were kind, cheering words,
and with a grateful ebullition of feeling she admitted
that, after his glad tidings, she, too, again felt
capable of believing in a happy future.

So the friends from childhood bade each other farewell.

CHAPTER XVIII.

During the following days Barbara’s life path
was illumined by the reflection of the happiness bestowed
by the wonderful change in the fate of her child of
sorrow, who now promised to become a giver of joy to
her.

Doubtless during the ensuing years many dark shadows
fell upon her existence and her heart; but when everything
around and within was gloomy, she only needed to think
of the son whom she had given the Emperor, and the
constantly increasing brilliancy of his career, to
raise her head with fresh confidence. Yet the
cloud obscuring her happiness which she found it hardest
to bear proceeded directly from him.